Having not grown up with the Internet, and only seeing the beginnings of it when I was well into my 20's, it still wows me that this huge repository of knowledge is available so readily.
My early interactions were sending text only emails to the IMDB to pull information from their database. Along with that, I remember subscribing to the Pink Floyd "Echoes" mailing list and being enlightened by their FAQs.
At this time, I had no connectivity at home. My employer used a mainframe based email system, but with a bit of research it was possible to establish how to make my ID into an external email address (all of which had an @IBMMAIL domain), and this gave limited access to the outside world, although of course finding others with the ability to communicate was a struggle.
Fast forward a couple of years, and a new employer, and we had a dedicated PC that could access the web. I set myself up with a usa.net email address, which seemed to attract any spam that was going. This was around 1996. Alta Vista was the search engine of choice. We were using a Microsoft Mail package internally, but still no outside contact for us.
1998, though, found me working at a subsidiary of a major bank, and for the first time I was using an Exchange server and could begin to communicate more freely.
I also got my first second hand PC at this time, and was using dial-up connections via a number of different ISPs to try and take advantage of the free elements of their packages that were available. Things like 60 minutes of free time, at which point you had to log off and back on again.
Napster honed into view. Wow. Free music. What a great idea.
October 2000 I bought my first "new" PC - a Gateway running Win 98, which I ultimately updated to XP, dual booted, etc, etc.
I was ISP'd up with Tiscali, and then ventured into broadband. But then I realised the more I knew, the more I needed (well, wanted) to know. And that is where forums came in. What an amazing thing these were - there were people asking questions, and others willing to patiently help them (well, most times).
So I plunged in, using forums like DVD+RW, vcdhelp, Windows forums, then into Libranet, and finally into more general Linux and Ubuntu forums, and then to Mac OS X.
This blog is really a way for me to store lots of memories, tips, guides, etc; in one place so - should the originating sites disappear - I can still go back to the tips I used initially. And this is particularly the intent with this post, which will be a bunch of links to the original sites, along with the relevant text extracts. I'll start with those from the Ubuntu Forums.
[SOLVED] USB Mouse and Screen Display issues on new Dell install
Extract:
Having already satisfactorily installed Ubuntu on my own ageing Gateway, I decided at the weekend to do the same on my son's new (3 month old) Dell.
Install didn't proceed too smoothly at first - kept sticking at partitioning stage. Then I read some forum posts following a Google search, one of which recommended a defrag first, and once I'd done that it was fine.
However, even when going through install, I noticed screen display was strange - the interactive map where you choose your locale was effectively scrolling down the screen in a very jerky manner.
The same now happens that the install is complete - particularly noticeable on Firefox, but even on text files. I did a search and this seems to be connected to screen resolution, but what do I need to set it at? And is there a way that this can be done so there is one defined screen resolution for Ubuntu, and another for Win XP (it's dual boot, and I don't have the same issues on Win)
The mouse is also strange - keeps freezing, and can only be resolved by unplugging mouse and plugging it in again. Again, a search seems to suggest this is a known bug, but is there a cure?
Response:
I did some searches on Google on how to solve this, and came across this thread - http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=279626&page=9&highlight=e521http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=279626&page=9&highlight=e521 - which suggested installing new Dell drivers here - http://support.dell.com/support/down...&fileid=190570http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&releaseid=R142795&SystemID=DIM_P4_C521&os=WW1&osl=en&deviceid=308&devlib=0&typecnt=1&vercnt=4&formatcnt=1&libid=1&fileid=190570
I did that, it took a couple of minutes or so, and then rebooted in WinXP to check all OK (it was) and then in Ubuntu as well (also fine)
No mouse freeze-ups since, and scrolling issue gone too!
[SOLVED] Checking Cron is working?
Extract:
I have two Cron related questions. I'm using KCron as I still like the comfort of a GUI!
What I'd like to know is:
- Do I need to do anything to make sure Cron is running at startup? Is it defaulted to that and how can I doublecheck it's still set up that way?
- Is there a way to make a terminal window appear so I can see the Cron job is running?
Response:
By default, the cron daemon runs with the computer start. But you can confirm that by placing a job on the cron that writes something to a file, or appending this command to your already made cron job:
echo "Hello World, I'm working" >> /home/myuser/cronlog.txt
[SOLVED] Moving files from folders to one location
Extract:
I download a number of podcasts using Icepodder. Individual directories are set up for each.
I want to move the files into one directory so I can copy them en masse to mp3 player. So far, I have been doing this by a mv script stating the full directory paths each time. This works, but every time I subscribe to a new podcast I need to do a new script - I'd rather have one that finds them all.
And that seems to be part of the cure - find.
Code:
find /media/hdb1/My\ Music/Podcasts -name *mp3
But if I try:
Code:
mv `find /media/hdb1/My\ Music/Podcasts -name *mp3` `/media/hdb1/My\ Music/Podcasts/`
Code:
bash: /media/hdb1/My Music/Podcasts/: is a directory mv: target `Unlimited/hoggart290307.mp3' is not a directory
Code:
mv `find /media/hdb1/My\ Music/Podcasts -name *mp3` /media/hdb1/My\ Music/Podcasts
Code:
mv: cannot stat `Guardian': No such file or directory mv: cannot stat `Unlimited/hoggart290307.mp3': No such file or directory
So, I'm nearly there! Can someone help me overcome the last obstacle please?!
Response:
This solved it:
find ./ -name '*.mp3' | while read FILE
do
mv "$FILE"
done
Re: "Open file" not showing all options
Try right-clicking on empty space in Open and there should be a 'show hidden files' option.
Assigning static IP address on Dual Boot Machine
Extract:
OK, my son has a Dell dual boot PC, Win XP and Ubuntu. It connects to the network using an Acer Homeplug.
Also on the network are three other laptops (one running Vista and two Acer Aspires running Linpus), and this machine, a Mac. These all connect wirelessly to my Belkin ADSL router.
I have decided I want all machines to have static IP addresses, and then turn off the DHCP server.
This has worked with all but my son's PC.
I have edited /etc/network/interfaces to show the new connection, changing the eth0 entry to refer to static rather than dhcp. This MAY be my first issue, at least according to this article - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NetworkManager - should I have not done this and left it to Network Manager?
However, I also read that there is an issue with dual boot machines in that Win "hangs on" to the connection, particularly with NVIDIA cards (which I have a feeling the Dell has)
I have tried /etc/init.d/networking restart many times, but after doing so I still can't ping anything, not even the router.
Should I be making the changes in System -> Administration -> Networking and then just referring to the connection in Network Manager?
Seeing other posts about issues with NM, should I be using it at all?
Hope someone can help.
I just noticed the thing about System -> Administration -> Networking, and as my son is now in bed, I can't try that one out tonight!!!
Response:
If it's Intrepid, Network Manager may also cause problems with static addresses. Here is a How-To for setting up static address via NM, and here is a proposal to remove NM and re-install the old manager.
Setting VLC Preferences on Acer Aspire tiny screen!!!
Extract:
My son has an Acer Aspire running Ubuntu. Although it has only a small screen, that's not usually a problem.
However, for some reason we've noticed recently that VLC quits unexpectedly when trying to play MPEGs and AVIs. A forum post here (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=962291) suggests a solution, but when I call up the Preferences window in VLC, I can't get to the bottom of the window to click confirm to my changes!!!
Is there an alternative route I can take, either via terminal or by changing the config file? I see video output in the latter, but nothing I could see defaults which video output it should be (and indeed all the text in the file is hashed out)
Response:
if you can't see the bottom of the preferences window then just press the "Enter" key on keyboard after making change(s), the changes will be saved. Then close and restart vlc to load change(s)
(thinking you are trying to change the video output to X11 video output
If for some reason you bork up the settings and can't see the 'reset preferences' button than this from terminal will set back to default
Code:
vlc --reset-config
Code:
vlc --reset-plugins-cache
Code:
vlc --reset-config --reset-plugins-cache
Wireless not working on Acer Aspire One
Extract:
Having previously run Jaunty and wireless worked perfectly, updated to Karmic. Maybe I should have been alerted during install when the network connection seemed to disappear, and when I re-started, wireless will no longer work.
I've tried reinstalling network manager and network manager gnome (via ethernet) - no joy.
Also tried removing all lines from /etc/interfaces except:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
(seen on another post)
That didn't work either.
What else could I try please?
Response:
It seemed that allowing the Acers to do the drive check on boot resolved this....
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